Deepak Maharjan | The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum

Chinese Engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean

October 19, 2023

Dr. Evan Ellis

What is the character of China’s engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean, including its economic, political, and military dimensions?

In this first SFWAF program of the 2023-24 season, Dr. Ellis will discuss China’s “soft power” activities south of the border, its challenges and opportunities, the impact on the US and the US policy response, as well as how the relationship is evolving and its prospects for the future.

Dr. Evan Ellis is a research professor of Latin American Studies with a focus on the region’s relationships with China and other non-Western Hemisphere actors, as well as transnational organized crime and populism in the region.

Dr. Ellis has published over 400 works, including five books: the 2009 book China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores, the 2013 book The Strategic Dimension of Chinese Engagement with Latin America, the 2014 book, China on the Ground in Latin America, the 2018 book, Transnational Organized Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the 2022 book, China Engages Latin America: Distorting Development and Democracy?

Dr. Ellis previously served as on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff (S/P) with responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean (WHA), as well as International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) issues.

In his academic capacity, Dr. Ellis presented his work in a broad range of business and government forums in 27 countries four continents. He has given testimony on Latin America security issues to the US Congress on various occasions, has discussed his work regarding China and other external actors in Latin America on a broad range of radio and television programs, and is cited regularly in the print media in both the US and Latin America for his work in this area. Dr. Ellis has also been awarded the Order of Military Merit José María Córdova by the Colombian government for his scholarship on security issues in the region.

Pay with Paypal

Registration: This SFWAF lunch is $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers. You may pay by check made out to SFWAF and mailed to The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum, Santa Fe, PO Box 31965, NM 87594 or with a credit card using our Paypal account. Please indicate on your check or if using Paypal please note in “add special instructions to the seller” that your payment is for the Thursday October 19, 2023 program. If you are not a member please also include your best contact information. If you are interested in membership, please email us.

Payment for this program is non-refundable after Thursday, October 12, 2023 if you are unable to attend. We strongly prefer that payment be made by Paypal or check postmarked by Thursday, October 12, 2023 at the latest to facilitate check in. It is also very helpful if you are sending a check to email us at sfwaforum@outlook.com to let us know you plan to attend.

If you are not a member but interested in membership, please see our membership page and email sfwaforum@outlook.com for additional information.

Because we are a 501(c)(3) organization, dues and contributions are tax deductible.

For pricing and reservations, click here: https://sfwaf.org/payment/

Location: SFCC Board Room (#223) is in the West Wing (Administration Building). The college is located at 6401 Richards Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87508. Enter through the building’s main entrance (on the left side of the building behind the flag poles). The Board Room is on the corridor to the left of the Campus Center.

Directions: From Rodeo Road turn south onto Richards Avenue. Turn into the campus main drive. Parking lots are in front of the building. From I-25 take the Cerrillos Road exit, turn east onto Governor Miles Road and then right onto Richards Avenue. Then follow directions above.

Please Note: Dr Ellis will be speaking Thursday evening at World Affairs Council Albuquerque. For more information on that event please visit the Council’s website: https://wacabq.org/upcoming-programs/

The Speaker

Dr. Evan EllisResearch Professor of Latin America and the Caribbean

Dr. Evan Ellis is a research professor of Latin American Studies with a focus on the region’s relationships with China and other non-Western Hemisphere actors, as well as transnational organized crime and populism in the region.

Dr. Ellis has published over 400 works, including five books: the 2009 book China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores, the 2013 book The Strategic Dimension of Chinese Engagement with Latin America, the 2014 book, China on the Ground in Latin America, the 2018 book, Transnational Organized Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the 2022 book, China Engages Latin America: Distorting Development and Democracy?

Dr. Ellis previously served as on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff (S/P) with responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean (WHA), as well as International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) issues.

In his academic capacity, Dr. Ellis presented his work in a broad range of business and government forums in 27 countries four continents. He has given testimony on Latin America security issues to the US Congress on various occasions, has discussed his work regarding China and other external actors in Latin America on a broad range of radio and television programs, and is cited regularly in the print media in both the US and Latin America for his work in this area. Dr. Ellis has also been awarded the Order of Military Merit José María Córdova by the Colombian government for his scholarship on security issues in the region.

Chinese Engagement with Latin America and the CaribbeanDeepak Maharjan2023-10-26T20:05:10-07:00

U.S. Policy on the Horn of Africa: Advancing Peace in Northern Ethiopia

May 18, 2023

Ambassador Michael (Mike) A. Hammer

Ambassador Michael (Mike) A. Hammer was named the United States Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa on June 1, 2022. His most recent assignment abroad was as the U.S. ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2018-2022.

Ambassador Hammer is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service class of Minister-Counselor.  His over three decades of service include serving as Acting Senior Vice President of the National Defense University (NDU) and Deputy Commandant of NDU’s Eisenhower School. He as U.S. ambassador to Chile from 2014-2016. Prior to his appointment in Chile, Ambassador Hammer served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from March 2012 to August 2013.
Before joining the Bureau of Public Affairs, Ambassador Hammer served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President, Senior Director for Press and Communications, and National Security Council Spokesman from January 2009 to January 2011.  He previously served at the National Security Council as Deputy Spokesman from 1999 to 2000 and as the Director of Andean Affairs from 2000 to 2001.

Ambassador Hammer’s overseas postings include Bolivia, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark.  His other State Department assignments include the Operations Center and serving as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Ambassador Hammer has received several awards, including the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award, the Department’s Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy, and several Superior Honor awards.

Ambassador Hammer earned a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.  He also earned Master’s degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and from the National War College at the National Defense University.

Pay with Paypal

Registration: This SFWAF lunch is $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers. You may pay by check made out to SFWAF and mailed to The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum, Santa Fe, PO Box 31965, NM 87594 or with a credit card using our Paypal account. Please indicate on your check or if using Paypal please note in “add special instructions to the seller” that your payment is for the Thursday May 18, 2023 program. If you are not a member please also include your best contact information. If you are interested in membership, please email us.

Payment for this program is non-refundable after Friday, May 12, 2023 if you are unable to attend. We strongly prefer that payment be made by Paypal or check postmarked by Friday, May 12, 2023 at the latest to facilitate check in. It is also very helpful if you are sending a check to email us at sfwaforum@outlook.com to let us know you plan to attend.

If you are not a member but interested in membership, please see our membership page and email sfwaforum@outlook.com for additional information.

Because we are a 501(c)(3) organization, dues and contributions are tax deductible.

For pricing and reservations, click here: https://sfwaf.org/payment/

The Speaker

Ambassador Michael (Mike) A. Hammer Ambassador Hammer is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service

Mike Vigil Ambassador Michael (Mike) A. Hammer was named the United States Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa on June 1, 2022. His most recent assignment abroad was as the U.S. ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2018-2022.

Ambassador Hammer is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service class of Minister-Counselor.  His over three decades of service include serving as Acting Senior Vice President of the National Defense University (NDU) and Deputy Commandant of NDU’s Eisenhower School. He as U.S. ambassador to Chile from 2014-2016. Prior to his appointment in Chile, Ambassador Hammer served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from March 2012 to August 2013.

Before joining the Bureau of Public Affairs, Ambassador Hammer served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President, Senior Director for Press and Communications, and National Security Council Spokesman from January 2009 to January 2011.  He previously served at the National Security Council as Deputy Spokesman from 1999 to 2000 and as the Director of Andean Affairs from 2000 to 2001.
Ambassador Hammer’s overseas postings include Bolivia, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark.  His other State Department assignments include the Operations Center and serving as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Ambassador Hammer has received several awards, including the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award, the Department’s Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy, and several Superior Honor awards.

Ambassador Hammer earned a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.  He also earned Master’s degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and from the National War College at the National Defense University.

U.S. Policy on the Horn of Africa: Advancing Peace in Northern EthiopiaDeepak Maharjan2023-05-07T20:06:27-07:00

Evolution of the Mexican Drug Cartels Including Trafficking of the Latest Synthetic Drugs – Fentanyl and Methamphetamine

March 16, 2023

Mike Vigil

Mike Vigil grew up in Espanola and was an undercover DEA agent in Colombia and Mexico infiltrating Pablo Escobar and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s drug cartels.

He was the former Chief of International Operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, one of the most highly decorated agents within the agency and responsible for numerous multinational operations, the largest involved 36 countries. Vigil was made an honorary General by the government of Afghanistan and given the key to the city of Shanghai by China. He was given an Admiral’s sword by the former president of the Dominican Republic, Hipolito Mejia. He was also responsible for developing global intelligence sharing platforms.

After graduating from New Mexico State University, he joined the DEA academy in Washington, D.C., in 1973 at the age of 22.

For most of his 31 year career, his job was to infiltrate Latin America’s drug cartels, posing as a Mexican drug trafficker. During his time with the agency, Mike Vigil never told his Española family about his dangerous work. But in a 370-page autobiography titled DEAL, he described some of his riskiest missions. In addition to DEAL, he has written Metal Coffins: The Blood Alliance Cartel, Narco Queen, and The Land of Enchantment Cartel.

In the 1980s, he said that he sat next to Colombia’s drug kingpin Pablo Escobar at soccer games. “The reason I wrote the book is to leave a legacy behind for my family,” Vigil said. “It’s also, secondarily, an education tool for people to see what the drug trade is really all about.”

DEAL starts with an anecdote of an undercover operation in the Mexican state of Sonora in the 1970s, when Vigil went undercover to meet two drug traffickers who worked for Guadalajara cartel leader Rafael Caro Quintero. In 1985, Quintero tortured and killed a DEA agent. As Vigil waited to exchange his fake money with the traffickers for three tons of marijuana, a Mexican federal agent with him got impatient, pointed his gun at one of the drug traffickers, blowing Vigil’s cover. “The trafficker shot [the agent] twice in the head, and I remember seeing a spray of blood coming out of his head,” Vigil recalled. The drug trafficker also shot at Vigil twice, but he missed. And so it went throughout his incredible and risky career south of the border.

Registration: This SFWAF lunch is $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers. To register you may either pay by check made out to SFWAF and mailed to the Santa Fe World Affairs Forum, PO Box 31965, Santa Fe, NM 87594 or by credit card through Paypal. Please indicate on your check – or if using Paypal (“add special instructions to the seller”) that your payment is for the Thursday March 16, 2023 program: https://sfwaf.org/payment/

Members: if you have not yet paid your 2022-23 membership dues, you may include the $50 per person annual dues in your payment for this program, but please also note in special instructions that dues are included. Because we are a 501(c)(3) organization, dues and contributions are tax deductible.

If you are not a member, please include your best contact information. If you are interested in membership, please email us: sfwaforum@outlook.com.

Payment for this program is nonrefundable after Friday, March 10. We strongly prefer that payment be made by Paypal or check postmarked by Friday March 10, 2023 to facilitate check-in. If you are mailing a check please also email us at sfwaforum@outlook.com to be sure we know you plan to attend.

Location:

SFCC Board Room (#223) is in the West Wing (Administration Building). The college is located at 6401 Richards Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87508. Enter through the building’s main entrance (on the left side of the building behind the flag poles). The Board Room is on the corridor to the left of the Campus Center.

Directions:

From Rodeo Road turn south onto Richards Avenue. Turn into the campus main drive. Parking lots are in front of the building. From I-25 take the Cerrillos Road exit, turn east onto Governor Miles Road and then right onto Richards Avenue. Then follow directions above.

The SFWAF program is from 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm.

Cost for the SFWAF lunch event is $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers.

Pay with Paypal

Registration: This SFWAF lunch is $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers. You may pay by check made out to SFWAF and mailed to The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum, Santa Fe, PO Box 31965, NM 87594 or with a credit card using our Paypal account. Please indicate on your check or if using Paypal please note in “add special instructions to the seller” that your payment is for the Thursday March 16, 2023 program. If you are not a member please also include your best contact information. If you are interested in membership, please email us.

Payment for this program is non-refundable after Friday, March 10, 2023 if you are unable to attend. We strongly prefer that payment be made by Paypal or check postmarked by Friday, March 10, 2023 at the latest to facilitate check in. It is also very helpful if you are sending a check to email us at sfwaforum@outlook.com to let us know you plan to attend.

If you are not a member but interested in membership, please see our membership page and email sfwaforum@outlook.com for additional information.

Because we are a 501(c)(3) organization, dues and contributions are tax deductible.

For pricing and reservations, click here: https://sfwaf.org/payment/

The Speaker

Mike VigilFormer Chief of International Operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration

Mike Vigil grew up in Espanola and was an undercover DEA agent in Colombia and Mexico infiltrating Pablo Escobar and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s drug cartels.

He was the former Chief of International Operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, one of the most highly decorated agents within the agency and responsible for numerous multinational operations, the largest involved 36 countries. Vigil was made an honorary General by the government of Afghanistan and given the key to the city of Shanghai by China. He was given an Admiral’s sword by the former president of the Dominican Republic, Hipolito Mejia. He was also responsible for developing global intelligence sharing platforms.

Evolution of the Mexican Drug Cartels Including Trafficking of the Latest Synthetic Drugs – Fentanyl and MethamphetamineDeepak Maharjan2023-03-17T02:46:35-07:00

The Westernization of Russia

March 7, 2023

Dr. James L. West

Click Here for Registration!

In this free web series for Santa Fe World Affairs Forum members and friends,historian Dr. James L. West explores the troubled relationship between Ukraine and Russia from earliest times to the present war. Join us Tuesdays from 10:30am to noon beginning February 14 for dynamic discussions leading up the Santa Fe World Affairs Forum’s symposium April 13-14 on today’s Russian invasion of Ukraine and its many reverberations.

Dr. West employs art and music to trace the course of the tangled history of Ukraine and Russia through cycles of conquest and subjugation, revolt and emancipation. Beginning with the founding of Kievan Rus, he examines the geography and ecology that entwined the “Wild Field” of the steppes with the “Forested Lands” to the north and the events from which founding mythologies claimed by both Russia and Ukraine are derived.

From these struggles, a modern, forward looking Ukrainian nation emerged against all odds to try to join Europe, only to be confronted by a backward-looking Russia determined to reignite those conflicts and drag Ukraine back into the Eurasian steppes. Herein, perhaps, lies the dynamic of the current war.

Below is the link to register for this series. You only have to register once to receive the information to join via Zoom in meeting format, which allows participants to see and hear each other and interact with Dr. West.

Dr. James L. West a specialist in Russian society, holds a PhD in prerevolutionary Russian history from Princeton University. He taught at the European University in St Petersburg, Russia from 2015-17, the sole remaining private university in the Russian Federation, closed in 2017 by the Russian government in its drive to eliminate western liberal thought in the country.

He was a professor of history and humanities at Middlebury College (1995-2011), and professor of history at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. (1971-95)

During his academic career, he was the recipient of several prestigious US government grants to conduct and publish research in and on the Soviet Union which resulted in Between Tsar and People (1991) and Merchant Moscow (1991), Princeton University Press and republished in Russia in 2008which he edited.

In addition to Russian history, West has taught courses on the interplay of culture, society, intellectual thought and politics in Russia and Central Europe. He spoke at SFWAF’s first symposium “A Window on Russia” in 2006 and at our 2018 symposium “Values, Myths and Interests: American Foreign Policy in an Unstable World” on “Up Off Our Knees: The Search for a Usable Past for Russia’s Resurgence.” He most recently addressed SFWAF audiences on history of the Ukraine-Russia conflict via web on August 17, 2022.

He most recently spoke on Russia-Ukraine relations for SFWAF in March 2020

If you are not a member but interested in membership, please see our membership page and email sfwaforum@outlook.com for additional information.

Because we are a 501(c)(3) organization, dues and contributions are tax deductible.

The Speaker

Dr. James L. WestProfessor of Russian History

Dr. James L. West a specialist in Russian society, holds a PhD in prerevolutionary Russian history from Princeton University. He taught at the European University in St Petersburg, Russia from 2015-17, the sole remaining private university in the Russian Federation, closed in 2017 by the Russian government in its drive to eliminate western liberal thought in the country.

He was a professor of history and humanities at Middlebury College (1995-2011), and professor of history at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. (1971-95)

During his academic career, he was the recipient of several prestigious US government grants to conduct and publish research in and on the Soviet Union which resulted in Between Tsar and People (1991) and Merchant Moscow (1991), Princeton University Press and republished in Russia in 2008which he edited.

In addition to Russian history, West has taught courses on the interplay of culture, society, intellectual thought and politics in Russia and Central Europe. He spoke at SFWAF’s first symposium “A Window on Russia” in 2006 and at our 2018 symposium “Values, Myths and Interests: American Foreign Policy in an Unstable World” on “Up Off Our Knees: The Search for a Usable Past for Russia’s Resurgence.” He most recently addressed SFWAF audiences on history of the Ukraine-Russia conflict via web on August 17, 2022.

He most recently spoke on Russia-Ukraine relations for SFWAF in March 2020.

The Westernization of RussiaDeepak Maharjan2023-02-28T22:21:44-07:00

The Mongol Invasion, The Rise of Muscovy and the Cossacks

February 28, 2023